It was the Ukrainian Football Federation which applied for the privilege to organize Euro 2012, not a Polish one (PZPN). At the time when UEFA was considering Ukraine's application to host European Championship Poland was shocked to discover how enormously corrupt the entire football world in Poland had been for very many years(suddenly everybody understood why youth acted so violently at the matches, why young football fans were so angry on the stadiums. It was because they saw, and suddenly everybody in Poland saw, what was going on in Polish Football - there were footballers who under oath during the court procedure couldn't remember even a one single match in their entire career which wasn't fixed beforehand, newspapers were full of interviews with footballers who were exptremely surprised that when they go to play football to some foreign clubs there is actual playing there and not just pretending to be playing as in corrupted Poland - such deep state of crisis was Polish Football in on the day when news about hosting Euro 2012 came). Around the years 2004-2007 Poles learned that about 99% of all the matches were simply sold beforehand. It was an enormous scandal. Everybody waited what will happen next and, all of a sudden, out of the blue, a news came that Poland is going to co-host Euro 2012. It was the very last thing that desperately looking for employment Poles wished (Poles want jobs, jobs, and once again jobs, not entertainment). It looks as though EURO 2012 were just a smokescreen to cover all the incompetence of the government which comprises the same politicians who have been promising jobs for the Poles for the last 23 years and never meant to fulfill their promises about it (they are constantly showing the Poles their middle finger with regards to new jobs creation, they are constantly making fun of Poles who are forced to seek employment abroad). It was also a smokescreen to cover another scandal as sleaze and corruption might be so widespread (noone can say how high the temperature is as the government decided to break this "corruption" thermometer) that Transparency International had to flee from this supposedly well developping country (it was impossible to find lawyers unafraid to control Polish elite's organized pressure groups, there were no people who could oppose unhealthy economic connections in Poland; check this fact: there is no Transparency International present in Poland since November last year). Polish football team is intrinsically unable to score even one single goal during this tournament, they simply can't do it (under normal circumstances, because the world of football had seen on many occasions some 'deus ex machina' entering the field and suddenly the referee starts to release some most strange, bizzare decisions - then it might happen that Polish team will score one goal. Another possibility is that e.g. Russians or Czechs will start scoring so many goals that some lost, single goal on the part of Poles might by pure chance take place). Why is this so? Because the Polish system is simply in the wrong way, as Orwell would put it. This is the most individualized nation on the planet and footbal is just a team game (I'm not sure about anti-Semitism, but I'm positive about individualism - Poles had sucked it with their mothers milk!). Poles can't play as one team, a Pole will always strive to be the first, the best and the cleverest at the expense of the rest of his team (in the Tupolev cockpit it was the same: some members of the crew were simply told to shut up, sit and enjoy the flight instead of providing assistance to the main pilot - it is generally agreed among experts that the atmosphere inside the Tupolev's cockpit was extremely toxic on that fatal 10th of April 2010). I invite everyone to watch the matches when Poles will be playing from this perspective as to how far the selfish and stupid rivalry inside the Polish team will spoil even the best opportunity to score a goal, this will be a terrific occasion to observe Polish "group psychology in (in)action", not to keep one's fingers crossed for Poland, absolutely.

I agree on the first part - but in my opinion the issue had been dealt with quite efficiently - more than thousand people got arrested and faced jail time. However the PZPN is still corrupted - one of the last bastion of communist apparatchiks. However, I can't agree with the rest of your post - firstly, the unemployment rate in recent years is constantly sinking, secondly - you may be surprised by the Polish team's performance.

I am not going to be surprised by our Polish team's performance because a few days ago one player from the basic team complined that he is having problems with communication with the rest of the team and football is a team game, you know. In fact the first match is taking place right now so thank you for reminding me: I must go and watch this enormous disaster (good or bad my country).

Somehow I managed to survive this "Polish team's performance" today and a great disaster it was! Had it not been for the maverick footballer Robert Lewandowski, there would have been a total discredit. Greeks have a huge, huge economic crisis, they were playing an opening match in a foreign country against the host of the tournament, Poland, all the Polish spectators at the stadium could be counted as yet another 12th player, so to speak. On the other hand Polish team had long been the centre of attention of our Prime Minister who on each and every occasion manifested his support for football nearly in the same way as Mr. Edward Gierek supported his coal-miners (Mr. Tusk is more and more emulating that former Communist Party leader, the alarming similitude between Gierek and Tusk gets visible each day for millions of Poles). And it was the Greeks who dominated the match, it was them who knew how to play. Now I fear very much a double digit result of the next match Poland vs Russia, I'm even afraid that Polish footballers will simply want to escape the stadium for fear of Arshavin and his colleagues (because they are a team, not a loose pack of Mr Smuda's chummies).

I, for one, think I understood what Mr Obama meant: "death camps operated by (mostly) German Nazis in (what is currently) Polish territory". "Polish death camps" was just a (really unfortunate) abbreviation.

It is preposterous to suggest that Mr Obama intended to defamate Poland. After all, one would have to be an idiot to interpret this abbreviation as if Poland were operating death camps on its own. Yeah, I know there are idiots in the world, but get a grip. I find it shocking the degree of hysteria and paranoia over a slip of tongue about an facts that are 70 years old

I absolutely agree with you however the point is that if the phrase is used enough it will stick and Poles, already all too often accused of antisemitisim, will be seen as complicit with the Nazi's. This couldn't be further from the truth however as the old saying goes, if you throw enough mud then some will stick. Poland just wishes that the truth is known and not distorted.

Yes, it was, but as some comments on this forum show, not for everyone it is obvious who run the Camps. As for "...the degree of hysteria and paranoia over a slip of tongue about an facts that are 70 years old"- I personally find t insulting. It is not hysteria and certainly not paranoia. It was probably just a "slip", but for many it had been supposed polish antisemitism that led to setting up those camps, which is not only untrue and abusive but also ridiculous, while Poles where killed there and "native Poles" (whatever that means, since most victims had been of Polish nationality anyway, but let say - not belonging to any "minority" ethnic group) where second largest group among those killed there (next after Jews, which again - where mostly Poles - both in nationality and culture - only Germans differentiate them from the rest of population according to some wicked ideology).

You are quoting Wikipedia, but you are deceivingly avoiding the section of WWII casualties which states that Poland (1939 borders) civilian casualties including HOLOCAUST victims are 5.38-5.58 millions.

Correct your dishonest exaggeration! By the way Ulm is German name but Knapik could be Polish.

Poland was the the only country in Europe where whole family were punished by death for helping Jews - this is an objective historical fact, full stop. Now why this had been so? For the simple reason that Poland was one of the most anti-Jewish nations in Europe at that time. If the Poles had been less anti-Jewish then The Germans would have been more afraid to proclaim death penalty for helping the Jews in Poland, but it being just the opposite, they (the Germans) knew perfectly well that their anti-Jewish jurisdiction would be met with a lot of enthusiasm on the part of the anti-Semite Poles, what's more, the Germans could garner some Poles' support for giving them this right to legally kill a Jew. The Poles during the war were rather anti-Jewish, so the Germans were gaining popularity among them when they threatened to kill for halping the Jew.

So, I may be killed if I help someone, so I like killer? That's logic? That's bollocks. First - Poles are first Righteous among the Nations. Second - Polish resistance execute collaborators, high rank Germans - even when as punish Germans kills hundreds civilians for each executed target. And there is something more. My grandmother were anty-Semite before IIWW, but she were helping Jews during IIWW. I still remember her tears, when she were remembering her friends - Jews, from school. As one of them, in night come for food, and she (my grandmother) could only give some bread, potato and milk, and she were thinking about them, hoping that they survive. You see, i may someone dislike, but You may still help him - that is BEING HUMAN. Like Voltaire wrote: I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

In occupied Poland there were seperate examples of enormous heroism and extreme courage, and there were many of them. What you say about your grandmother that she gave some food to the hiding Jews reminded me of some other story that one old man told me a few years ago. This old Pole had been working on a farm in Germany during the war, and he praised his German farmer who often gave him and other Poles serving on the farm some extra food at night. At night (sic!), not during the day, because, God forbid, his neighbours might notice this and there would be a huge problem with the authorities. Later during the war this Polish groom managed to gather a few beetroots and potatoes when he was working in the field and at night exchanged this food for cigarettes with a French prisoner of war who was placed in the neighbourhood of the farm in which he was working, as French POW didn't have to work and collected cigarettes which the Poles did not get, such was the German way of conduct, my friend. Your grandmother provided the same kind of support for the Jews (at night!), which proves my point that the overwhelming majority of Poles was looking for the occasion to betray the Jews in such a way so as to take some advantage of it. As to your (in)famous Polish resistance, they were doing more harm than good killing anyone during the war, because each time they "courageously" killed a German or "a collaborator", ten or even hundred Poles were executed by the Germans. What's more, sometimes they killed people who were doing their best to help other Poles survive. For instance Home Army (AK) killed Wacław Krzeptowski, who saved the life of the late primate Stefan Wyszyński when he was interrogated by Gestapo in Zakopane. Primate Wyszyński gave account of this interrogation many years later after the war. He knew German and was answering to the Germans' questions while Mr. Krzeptowski was present in the room. Suddenly a German asked some nasty, tricky, very ambiguous question to which the future Primate started to giving his answer. Upon hearing what Wyszyński was about to say to the Germans, Krzeptowski quickly jerked at him and he himself said some things in German to the Germans which entirely changed the whole context of the interrogation and Wyszyński was soon set free. Many years later, as a Primate, cardinal Wyszyński recollected this event and said: only now do I understand that had it not been for Mr. Krzeptowski saying just what he said back then I wouldn't have survived the war. But your "courageous" Home Army (AK) brutally hanged this man in January 1945. Don't tell me about the role of the Home Army and what they were doing during the war. My respect for your grandmother, however. There is some point beyond which just "being human" is no longer possible, this message being still valid today if one takes into consideration some over-patriotic comments here.

"[...]As one of them (Jews), in night come for food?[...]" Actually, my grandmother where smuggling food in daylight. Może jednak gorzej piszę po angielsku niż mi się wydaje: Żydówka, koleżanka babci, przyszła nocą po jedzenie do domu babci. And for Your story about French POW, how it is related to "proof about betray Jews for advantage of it" - i don't get it. Maybe there is some context which I can't see, so - napisz po polsku, serio - nie widzę ciągu logicznego.
As for AK - some of their moves, are silly or plain stupid for me. Like Warsaw Uprising - great manifestation of well known polish heroism etc. Especially polish government in exile. I personally feel sadness in my heart, for all those brave and naive soldiers, and rage about destroyed Warsaw, as city, and their residents.

There was some rigid order of the world in the minds of millions of Germans during the war according to which a Pole was above a Jew, A French was above a Pole, and a German was above a French - this way of perceiving the world was some kind of religion to millions of Germans. Millions of French people and millions of Poles had to live with the consequencies of this bizzare world-view of the Germans for as many as six long years 1939-1945. My story about a French POW provided one of the many real-life examples of it. You would see more coherence in what I am writing, perhaps, if you didn't cut what I am writing and take my words out of the context. As to the Warsaw Uprising the thing is obvious, the Home Army leaders expected some easy overnight victory over the Germans because they judged the whole thing from the 1918 perspective, when Besseller asked the Varsovians if they could kindly come and take the keys to the city hall (together with its arsenals and prisons) as he was leaving Warsaw and didn't want to leave it to the Communists approaching from the East. Poor Home Army leaders naively thought that it would be the same in 1944 and that it would be enough if some groups of school students (very patriotic youth from the right families, like Kaczyńskis and Komorowskis - sic!) fired some percussion cap guns into the air and all the frightened Germans will quickly leave the city similarly as they actually did so in November 1918. But 1944 was much different from 1918, although it was only a very short time span of merely 26 years (many Varsovians vividly remembered Besseller's 1918 withdrawal just as many of Poles today still remember with details the Martial Law in 1981 though it was 31 years ago). AK leaders just expected to quickly win without fighting and then pretend to be great heroes, boast about sacrifices, explain that love for Poland made heroes of them overnight, and stuff like that, but in reality they just expected Germans to quickly leave the city. That it was otherwise and that so many youth had to die due their irresponsibility and childish, infantile calculations, came as a great shock to them themselves! AK leaders were just a pack of smartarses who expected to benefit from the German quick withrawal from Warsaw in August 1944. What I ditto wrote is the most likely explanation of these tragic events, but I'm sure that either you or some other would-be Polish patriot will now start to take my words out of context, pretend not see logic in what I have written here and so on.

So "play by the rules" given by Germans, ok - now I understand story about French POW. (I cut out of context for quote, i read that in its entirety many times trying too understand - that's for Your allegation.) But still don't believe in "[...]the overwhelming majority of Poles was looking for the occasion to betray the Jews." Traitors are in every population. We got szmalcownik (man which sell Jews to Germans), French got Vichy - who send Jews even without ask. Same story in Belgium, Netherlands, and other country occupied by Germans.
And why You attack me, calling me "would-be Polish patriot"? In many things, which You had wrote here I not only accept, but support, in other - not. Didn't I wrote, that because of lack in English I may miss point? One time i wrote bollocks about that theory explaining why Germans punish whole families for helping Jews. I never, ever before hear about that, and it's still nonsense for me. From where You get that theory?

Polish reactions to Obama,s slip of tongue respond to a deeper problem with the current Holocaust and WW2 interpretation in some circles.
1. German responsibility for both is dilluted by the use of the term Nazi. So we have Nazi occupation of Europe and Nazi death camps.
2. Nazis in the context of WW2 are nothing more than anisemites and antisemites at that time were everywhere in Europe including Poland which had the largest Jewish population in the world. Therefore, even though technically Poles had nothing to do with death camps, they are smeared by association as evidenced by some posts here.
3. Holocaust is a linear and direct result of anisemitism. Racial theories and practise of the 3rd Reich are overlooked.(as if every cough necessarily leads to lung cancer and no extra factor is needed)
4. The unspeakable terror and hardship of German occupation in Poland is ignored.(food rations not sufficient to survive, death penalty for helping your fellow countryman etc.) The implication is that Poles could have helped the Jews but had chosen not to.
5. Individual or small group behaviour is extrapolated onto the whole population and treated as if sanctioned by a state authority(denounciations or killings of Jews by Poles)
6. Jewish collaboration with the Germans is now ignored (Judenrats, Jewish police in ghettos)
In my view, those horrible times are best interpreted as a gruesome experiment set up by the German Nazis in which the basest human instincts were rewarded and the best punished. Animals experimented on are not blamed for the results and neither should the humans. Those who lived through those times and failed in their hmanity had to deal with their own conscience. The worst we can do is to use the experience to stereotype whole populations, Polish or Jewish.Looks like Hitler has the last lough.

Isn't this an ambiguity in language? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't one meaning of the word 'polish' - situated in Poland. This is actually true, even though Nazis ran the death camps some of them were undeniably in Poland.

Indeed in the context of Mr Barrack's comment talking about Jan Karski it is clear that only the one's in Poland are relevant (otherwise he would technically be a foreign invader instead of a resistance fighter). I guess Mr Barrack could have said 'Nazi run death camps situated in Poland' but it seems a mouthful.

All that said, we would know what he meant if he said 'Nazi death camps' so I guess it could be easily avoided.

The problem is that they were not located in Poland. E. g. Auschwitz is German name of Oswiecim, which was annexed to Germany in October 1939. Same or similar situation relates to other death camps.
The term “Polish Death Camp” sounds as defamation and I don’t care if it is politically or grammatically correct or not. That term falsifies the history.
It is interested why Mr President does not use term “German Death Camps”. They were founded by German State; they operated on German controlled land (territory) by German Staff.
Maybe Mr President does not know that? Or maybe he was educated that Nazi State was founded on Moon?

Your statement "The problem is that they were not located in Poland" is obviously correct as Auschwitz, as well as several other camps like Dachau, etc. were in the German Reich. Unfortunately, few people, including some poorly informed graduates of US universities now employed by the US government, care to distinguish between pre-Sept.1939 political realities and the fact that even camps like Majdanek, Tremblinka, Sobibor were in a newly created administrative territories named "General Government" established and run by a German Reich appointed governor. One could even try to make an obviously ridiculous case defining Auschwitz as an 'Austrian camp' given a historic fact that in the 19th - early 20th cent. the Austro-Hungarian monarchy ruled that part of Central Europe much longer than the post-1918 Polish state.

Hm, during WWII Auschwitz was in IIIrd Reich because this occupied part of Poland was incorporated into German state. How are going to describe this in our modern times ? nb. write Polish not polish
Poles are not poles.

Ah thanks for clearing that up. I apologize in advance for any readers who thought I was referring to solid cylindrical objects or polishing rather than the area of land corresponding to annexed 3rd Reich territory 1939-1945 or the modern Republic of Poland.

See above regarding your other point. I presume your question was rhetorical?

Of course the death camps were organized by the Germans, and not the Poles. But the hysterical reaction on this site suggests that the Poles have yet to come to terms with their own war past. While they were the first victims of the Germans, a very large number of Poles were also happy to get rid of their Jews. But Poland was not unique in this respect. While the Germans were of course the initiators and organizers of the holocaust, all over Europe people did not need much convincing to join in.

Join in????
People in Poland risk their own life as well as their family by helping Jews.
Why do think Germans publicly executed such heroic people??
They did it to maximize terror!

For all those accusing ordinary Poles of vicious antisemitism I have a couple of questions:
1. Imagine that your actions could be a direct danger, life threatening to your loved ones. Would you be so brave and simply out of humanitarian duties help strangers?
Thousands of Poles did that.. just see how many are recognized and appreciated by Yad Vashem intitute.
2. When you hear repeated over and over accusations like the ones presented by Haeckelist would you just let go? If you say something in defence of the truth(however unpopular in certain circles) you automatically risk being labeled as hysterical.
Well, thousands of Poles where executed for helping to survive their Jewish neighbors, it is now our duty to guard their good name and memory. Whole villages were burned for hiding Jews, just show me the record of that in any other country please?
The ugly fact that there were some people denouncing Jews mainly for profit, cooperating with Nazis to capture them can not entirely skew the whole picture?
Saying that "very large number of Poles were happy to get rid of Jews" is equally valid as saying that very large number of Jews were happily joining Soviet secret police killing all anti communist in Poland by the thousands?!
Neither is fair not it is true.

I was born in Poland and I never heard such kind opinion about Jews. From testimonies of my family there was picture of great compassion towards Jewish people: ordinary people tried to help them.
The law established by Germans in occupied Poland was very harsh in that area: death penalty for any help to Jewish people.
The picture created by Haeckelist2 is unfair. He accuses Polish nation in similar way as Nazis used to accuse Jews. But we cannot forget millions of people destructed or anihilated by German and Soviet state. It is our right.
I agree that some people accuse Polish or Jewish people for such destruction and they call any protest as a “hysterical reaction”.
But it is not “hysterical reaction” but it is a voice against Nazi methods. Against unjustified accusation which originated in wrongful antipathial attitude. Nazi attitude.

It is difficult to judge what motivates people, even more difficult after the ones that took action or withheld it have passed away. I really do not understand where does your conviction come from that: "a very large number of Poles were also happy to get rid of their Jews". There were nationalists and antisemites in prewar Poland, true, but even they were horrified with what the Germans were doing, some taking action to help the Jews, like Zofia Kossak-Szczucka. I do understand, however why the Polish Jews have felt betrayed and outraged at the Christian Poles. It is as if a group of large bullies started to pick up at you and none of your classmates stood up to help you, or if your boss treated you unjustly or with prejudice and no one among your coworkers showed you support - you would tend to feel they all have sided with the perpetrator and are your enemies now, even if their motivation was only to save their skin/ job. Being singled out for extermination and death must produce such feelings much more intensely. I doubt, however, that as you write, the Christian Poles "were happy to get rid of their Jews". On one side Jews constituted close to 10% of Polish society and have contributed throughout the ages to the country's cultural achievements and development. Their disappearance created a void impossible to fill. The other reason is that unlike other Europeans denouncing "their" Jews to the Germans, who did not have the horror of extermination right next to them, the Polish did experience the mad fury of Hitlers' death machine and thought they would be next, so they would rather experience compassion and anger at not being able to help (others and themselves)rather than shadenfreude at maybe disliked (or actually liked) neighbors misfortunes. The dominating feeling, however must have been horror and fear, a feeling, as would any truly courageous person confirm, no one is free from in the face of gravely danger. The courage is to think clearly and to act bravely despite the fear. And it takes a lot of character to do it, as fear is the devil's advocate that has the power to change the way we think. As in any group of people there were those who acted heroically and those who showed the lowest side of humanity, as well as a passive majority merely trying to survive.

Ignorance is dangerous. We were the only nation under occupation which had set an organisation specificly targeted to help the Jews. Check how many Polish people were killed for helping them, and how many of our people bears now the title of recognition from the state of Israel for active help. What means "Happy"? Do you know that in fact till 1989 Poland was occupied and We couldn't articulate our voice on many important for our nation issues not mentioning wheter or not we were "happy" at all!

Even though I live in Europe and try to read all kinds of media sources, as a person from the U.S. I find this kind of know-it-all ranting in the British press really repulsive. I don´t have any sort of special pride or patriotism in being an American, but this kind of petty commentary is more suited to a gossip column than a newspaper the claims to represent serious analysis of the issues.

As reported by Der Spiegel, the president of the Central Council of Jewish community in Germany, Dieter Graumann strongly criticised German football Association for sending only a small token delegation to visit the Auschwitz memorial on the team's arrival in Poland.
Text and photos:

Is this not a reason to feel a bit sorry for the Germans? What other country would send its football players (born in the 1980s, including people of Turkish, Polish, Spanish and Ghanaian descent) to a concentration camp before entering a major football tournament!

As the article also noted the British sent their entire team to visit Auschwitz.

All the teams are in Poland for the European football championships and visit to concentration camps in Poland is part of the program by football associations to educate people about racism and anti-semitism.

This rewriting history business is a one of the standard boilerplate charges but it is totally misplaced on a number of counts.

Firstly, history is being continously rewritten. Our view of the middle ages, of colonialism, of the second world war is continously revised in light of new research and our attitude to it. As the English historian EH Carr famously stated, history is "an unending dialogue between the past and present".

Secondly, history depends on who and where you are. There is no one standard position, engraved in stone.

And finally, despite what right wing politicians in Poland would have you believe, the Germans do not question the basic narrative and responsibility for the second world war. The war weighs heavily on Germany to this day. Unfortunately, many politicians like to imply otherwise, out of ignorance or ill will.

My comment (regarding rewriting history) was referring partially to the "polish death camps", "nazi death camps" etc. As for rewriting history, I believe we think of different things really. You are talking about scientific method - I am talking about indoctrination. Both could be similar in methods but are completely different in the idea that stands behind it. Scientists search for "truth" and with additional knowledge and experience falsify the old theories. Indoctrination tries to present the history in the narrative that is favorable to some group. Poles are probably a little overreacting on that front but it is a result of years living under Soviet rule, when history was constantly "rewritten" to suit the political need.
As for the politicians - you are right, that some on the "Right" are paranoid about Germans, but again - even on this forum some Dutch guy was of opinion that the camps were operated by Poles, on the Polish soil with Polish acceptance. I want believe that Germans know their history, but I know that most young people just don't care.

An interesting comment since the UK kept a German POW from returning home while he starred with Manchester City.

Perhaps I am not precise here. Maybe it was England and not the UK.

I get confused sometimes over proper names for England and her "Near Abroad." Sark, the Channel Isles and such are also confusing. I hope that someone will brief Obama properly before he makes compliments to Elizabeth II of England as Elizabeth I of Scotland or to the Duke (not duchess) of Normandy.

An interesting comment since the UK kept a German POW from returning home while he starred with Manchester City.

Perhaps I am not precise here. Maybe it was England and not the UK.

I get confused sometimes over proper names for England and her "Near Abroad." Sark, the Channel Isles and such are also confusing. I hope that someone will brief Obama properly before he makes compliments to Elizabeth II of England as Elizabeth I of Scotland or to the Duke (not duchess) of Normandy.

"How do you know this?" Anyone with an ounce of knowledge and good will on the subject should appreciate my comment.

"All people's have to live with the burden of their countrie's histories, so ?" Germany's historical burden is undoubtedly special for the simple reason that the history is so atrocious and relatively recent. In no other country in the world does this burden come close.

"And btw the burden of the children and grandchildren of the victims of Nazi Germany is much greater." Good point although I would say this is debatable. Being the heirs to mass murderers (and very recent ones at that) is a particularly miserable predicament. However, to avoid unnecessary contention, I'll just stick to my original claim, ie. that the war weighs heavily on Germany to this day.

I am not just talking of scientific method. History is a very imprecise science (if you can call it a science at all) and above all highly emotional one (as the comments in this forum amply testify). Everyone has their own slant and Poles are certainly no slouches in the exercise. Take for example the Polish version of the history of the so-called "ziemie odzyskane", which tends to end around the 14 century and abruptly start again in 1945, leaving a gaping 600 year gap.

Or take my favourite example, the name of the capital of Slovakia: until 1919 it was virtually exclusively either Pressburg (or a version thereof) or Pozsony. In 1919, as capital of the new Slovakian province of Czechslovakia, Bratislava was virtually pulled out of a hat to give the city the correct credentials. To give you an idea of how artificial it was, there was even a suggestion to call it Wilsonovo Mesto, after the name of the American president who was instrumental in establishing the Czechoslovak state.

My point is that everyone is at this game, rewriting or inventing history or whatever you want to call. Germans of course included. That said, the essential narrative of who started the war and who is responsible for it remains unquestioned in Germany, despite what many would have you believe.

Actually the "ziemie odzyskane" term had been part of Soviets propaganda explaining why Poles should treat results of Jalta (i.e. getting part of German lands) as a victory rather than being ripped off by Stalin and Allies (and losing lands on its east). So it somehow proves my point about indoctrination. I just can't see how history of the massive murder committed by Germans could be rewritten in good faith... Do we need some more data on the subject? Would new evidence throw new light on it? I doubt it. As of the history is a record of politics - true, however facts are facts and history just tells about that. If we discover new facts we should rethink our narrative, but if we do so just to meet the need of current politics - its just indoctrination.

Your protestations amply serve to prove my point, ie that being German is something of a burden that few non-Germans care to appreciate.

"if Germany's history is so atrocious than it is their fault". Arguably it is, but bear in mind that the overwhelming majority of Germans (ie well over 90%) had absolutely nothing to do with the conflict for the simple reason that they are too young. However, as a society, they carry the burden, at least to some extent, irrespective of age.

"Asking for sympathy on this matter is a bit strange." It obviously is to you. However, imagine for a moment that you are in their shoes, how would you like it? Or compare if you will the German football players who visit Auschwitz with the English ones. They are all in their 20s and it has nothing directly to do with them. For the English (if they even go there), it's gruesome, but, hey, the Germans did it. For the Germans, it has another dimension altogether.

Please do not misinterpret me. I am not equating sins or overturning any factual account of the second world war. One should exaggerate either--it is not as if Germans spend every minute of the day thinking about what their ancestors did. However, I repeat, it is a burden on German society and it is not a pleasant one.

"Well Germans don't seem to view themselves as heirs to mass murderers. It was just a small bunch of criminals who duped the German people seems to be the general view." Seems to be the general view---well it's not. There are of course over 80m of them so views differ but by and large Germans accept responsibility for the crimes of the second world war. Certainly the Germans have done a much better job of facing up to their terrifying history than the Japanese.

Call them "ziemie polnocne i zachodnie", it has nothing to do with my point, which is that the history of those areas, at least in the public imagination, heavily biased.

However, I am not pointing fingers at Poland on this. Everyone is busy rewriting, skewing or plain inventing history. History is manipulated and politicised everywhere, precisely because it is so emotive.

Despite this, I do not see any concerted attempt (ie "indoctrination" as you call it)in Germany to overturn the main facts concerning the second world war. Where do you see the evidence of this?

It's not about Germany's overturning facts, but that this probably minor "slip" reinforces stereotypes about polish antisemitism leading to the dead camps. Many comments on this forum shows how some people are ignorant about the history. That's why you see so many comments here - it's reaction to such commentary. When you wrote that rewriting history is business as usual - I just can't agree on that.

But I wasn't saying Germans born after the war did all those atrocities and are guilty are they? Please don't put words into my mouthl.

As for the visit to the concentration camps. you seem to have got the story wrong. Even the New York times had an article on it.

Since the European championships are in Poland, various football associations are sending their teams to the camps in Poland as an opportunity to educate people since as you know very well racism and anti-semitism is quite a big problem with some football fans. Not only Britain but other countries sent their teams to Auscwhitz, the German team sent a feeble 2 or 3 players probably as token gesture while other countries sent their whole teams.

This is very different from your initial statement "what other country would send its team to visit Auschwitz" trying to turn it into a tale of German "burden".

So pardon me if I say you are biased on this issue.

BTW, accepting responsibility for crimes is very different than viewing themselves as the heirs of mass murderers. I guess that was a way of exaggerating the "burden" for Germans ?

yes, they accept responsibility for the crimes committed by what they view as a bunch of criminals who took over their country.

"I do not see any concerted attempt (ie "indoctrination" as you call it)in Germany to overturn the main facts concerning the second world war. Where do you see the evidence of this?"

The evidence for this is there for all to see when people try to deny that Hitler had the support of the majority of the people.

They usual manipulative trick of using the results of the 1933 elections is the standard tactic, conveniently leaving out that it was AFTER 1933 that Hitler achieved his greatest popularity, particularly after the conquest of France in 1940.

We seem to be arguing at cross purposes. My statement that Germans are heirs of mass murderers was maybe a bit melodramatic but it was not meant as an exaggeration. Anyone who knows the country understands what I mean, although I guess it helps to speak German. I don't think I am biased on the matter.

As a society I think they have faced up to the crimes as well as can be reasonably expected--you can always do more but we live in the real world and people do have other things to do. Certainly, they have done incomparably more than the Japanese.

Your suggestion that they accept responsibility but only in the sense that they were exploited by a bunch of criminals is also unfair. This view does of course get expressed (not least by the pope!) but by and large I think Germans accept the real societal responsibility.

If you are ever in Berlin, I suggest you check out the Holocaust memorial, or the very moving Neue Wache on the Unterdenlinden, for example.

So I am the great example of indoctrination. Well, if that's all there there ain't much.

I am not conveniently missing anything out. You are right to point out that Hitler's popularity increased after he started the war but it is also perfectly fair to point out that Hitler failed to win the absolute majority he tried to get through intimidation in the 1933 elections.

The first thing I did after I heard about Obama's words was to hit my desk for a few times with my forehead. Hard. Because I knew what's coming...

I believe our (Polish) PM, foreign affairs minister and defence minister did the same, cause I saw huge bumps on their foreheads too...;-)

But seriously:
1. I do not believe that it was a calculated statement. The outcry is just because our right-wing media having a field day and politicians cannot ignore it too. Nobody sane in Poland believes that average Americans have any doubts who was responsible for building and running concentration camps.
2. The higher you get the more careful with words you should be. Especially when speaking about such a sensitive issues like holocaust and concentration camps. Obama is not a dummy, he is a trained lawyer and Harvard graduate. He knows the value of words. So sorry, no excuses. Especially for the guy who wrote the speech (if it was his mistake).

The letter with "sort of apology" was enough for me (and best we could expected) so the case is closed.
And Obama could pull his foot out of his mouth now.

I would not call it a misspelling “mistake”. I suppose that this sentence may be regarded rather as defamation than a mistake. In the case of President Obama, it could be considered as a mistake but more probable, it was his historical ignorance (maybe deficiency in basics of European history education).
But There is one thing I am worry about: ‘many distinguished scholars made the very same mistake’. So, I conclude that it is not a simple mistake of historical ignorance only, but this mistake may be done intentionally. Do you see it? President Obama may not be educated in basics of European history, but what about scholars? If someone who is uneducated makes basic mistake, it is “entirely forgivable”. I agree. Even, if it is mistake with defamation in background.
I wish, my way of life to be to forgive each other.
But if someone intentionally makes so “basic” mistake, it is causing I feel sad. I feel sad because it shows that someone important (scholar) try to falsify the history about millions of victims during the occupation on Polish soil. The soil, where I have been born...
Maybe some bad people do promote such kind of mistakes in order to perpetuate in peoples mind that “Nazi death camps” were really “Polish death camps” or even more “Polish Nazi death camps”? On Polish soil there were millions of victims: European Jews, Polish Jews, Jewish Poles, Polish citizens but not Jews. There were millions of peoples killed. Innocent peoples killed in Oswiecim, Aushwitz, Palmiry, Warsaw 1942, 1943 (Ghetto), Warsaw 1944 (200,000 civilian Poles, Warsaw inhabitants, brutally killed on spot in 1944): Murdered by Germans and their allies... Also millions deported by Soviets and destructed by them in the east, far from their fatherland. We may not forget it. We may not allow for falsification of this history.
Maybe it is hard to them to accept the fact that the Polish Government (independent legitimate Polish Government) was the only Government in Europe and in the world, which did not cooperated with Nazis or their allies. (And maintain well its existence during war). For Polish Government it was matter of honour not participate or cooperate with Nazi Government or any Government who was (in that time or in the past) in alliance with Nazi Germany.
This Government sent Jan Karski with mission, and probably it was only Government which published officially about Nazi atrocities during the war. For other governments this was not quite comfortable. President Obama probably did not know about it.
The contribution of Polish Army in defeating Germans was proportionally great. For example Battle of Brittan in 1940 – 20% of Germans air forces was destructed by Polish Divisions, Italy 1943, 1944, France 1943, Africa.
Poles fought Germans on every front: from very begin to the very end. But Polish Army and Polish Government never entered in alliance with them who made intended mass destruction of civilians during the war.
It is ok, that you suggest supporting of not using the term “Polish Death Camp”. But in my opinion the term “Polish Death Camp” may be fruit of intentional overshadowing of the truth by the private reluctance or aversion to the people of particular origin.

Present-day Poland may not wish to be blamed for the death camps established by the Germans; however; my father; a Jew; was born in Poland and he said: there is no country more anti-Semitic that Poland. He should know. Also; if one has viewed the French film "Shoah" (the maker's name escapes me at the moment--is it Claude Lanzmann?-- in it he interviews several Polish citizens who express their complete agreement with the aims of the Nazis to exterminate the Jews. (I don't know if I am supposed to sign this....if I am; I'm fine with that...P. Stegman

Mr Stegman, One qick question:
Why do you think your father "should know"? What in depth knowledge did he possess except his own opinions? Maybe his own private experinces?
Making accusations concerning entire nation based on very individual and very limited opinion is quite unfair, to say it politely.Don't you think?
Let me give you a quick example.
Many fresh emigrants to US, coming from Poland, land their first (often "illegal") job in some company being ran by Jewish owners, who themselves came to America from Poland many years ago, so eaase of communications helps.
Not all, but some of these Jewish businesspeople, abuse emigrants they hire, cheating or shortchanging them of earnings etc.
Based on this opinion and putting your logic to work, I can make a statement that all Jews are the most deceitful, dishonest people in the world. Would that be fair??
I am of Polish descent, I have many friends who happen to be Jewish. I am full of respect towards them and Jewish culture and traditions. You cannot make me an antisemite!?
Let me also point out that such biased movies like 'Shoah'
are nothing more than propaganda, hate mongering and dishonest representation of history. NOt much different from soviet or german propaganda movies!! Oh, the Irony!
In the end ask yourself Mr Stegman, why being antisemitic is a moral crime, but being antipolonist somehow acceptable?

'Shoah' movie is anything but a solid source of knowledge. It is an arbitrary choice of scenes from interviews prepared by Monsieur Lanzmann, aimed at proving the pre-assumed thesis. It reflects the specificity of the discourse on Holocaust in France, which is in large part concentrated on hiding/deflecting focus from France's active collaboration with Nazi Germany and modern anti-Semitism among French population.
An example of French discourse specificity is the case of Jan Karski in Yannick Haenel-Claude Lanzmann controversy:http://www.sztetl.org.pl/en/article/bialystok/19,news/15455,jan-karski-i...

Many polish people were anti-Semitic. But even being an antisemite it's not the same what being a killer of Jews. In fact, an founder of Zegota - polish underground organization, which helped Jews - was an antisemite - Zofia Kossak-Szczucka. Speaking of Zegota, according to wiki "Żegota helped save some 4,000 Polish Jews by providing food, medical care, relief money and false identity documents.Poland was the only country in occupied Europe where there existed such a dedicated secret organization."
Finally, polish church was very anti-Semitic, but polish monasteries saved thousends of Jewish children.
Of course I am aware also of the bad things. But my point is that being antisemite it's not the same what wishing death to Jews.

>Whatever guilt the French bear for co-operating with Nazis in no way excuses the co-operation and/or antisemitism of any other country<

Yes, exactly. I didn't comment to deny that. In contrast to French Lanzmann, always eager to deal with Germany or Poland (no matter how opposed their roles were during WWII) both countries have their own specialists who openly deal with anti-Semitism on their own yards. Monsieur Laznmann is much better qualified to make an open, deep movie about the French colaboration and duplicity. But no, he chose an easy way, in a good, old tradition of 'always spotless France', always having some great excuse. And had impudence to further propel myths, in 1985!, when Poland was locked behind the double curtain: iron one, and martial law, silenced and unable to react.

Happily these times are over.

So just to remind:
France's cooperative state rounded-up Jews and sent them to German death camps. In contrast to, for instance, Italian state, an ally of Nazi Germany, which did not...
What is more, France's Jews were as a rule indistinguishable from the rest of population - saving them wouldn't be a question of much effort. While Jews in German-occupied Central and Eastern Europe as a rule were very distinct from the rest of population.

As to your father's opinion about Poland. Yes, there's a lot of bitterness among 'second-generation' Jews of Poland: the children of Holocaust survivors, in large part saved by their Polish non-Jewish neighbours, called by some of the survivors 'members of the most antisemitic nation'. Strange, isn't it? Nonetheless, I somehow don't blame them. Their point of view usually changes when they at last come to visit the old homeland of Polin as it is today.

And to conclude - sorry, but as in the French case of Lanzmann: while pointing to those Polish individuals who took advantage of German Nazi anti-Jewish policies, or to that mass of Poles who were indifferent and simply wanted to survive, it is worth to remember about own, Jewish, self-mistreatment. I hope you are aware about the role of Jewish Ghetto police, the Judenrats, and other phenomena.

yet: In contrast to [[[[French]]]] Lanzmann, always eager to deal with Germany or Poland.

French Lanzmann is a JEW too, I don't think that he made his film because he was a french that wanted to make into your scheme: " in large part concentrated on hiding/deflecting focus from France's active collaboration with Nazi Germany and modern anti-Semitism among French population."

He who then would have added into your basket, IF your lies were true ! Besides it was a "order" from Israel, and endorsed by Israel !

It seems that, in the contray, it's you that is "hiding/deflecting focus from Poland's active collaboration with Nazi Germany and modern anti-Semitism among Polish population."

"The Polish leadership was more concerned with the idea of retaining of all Jewish properties and businesses than with helping their unfortunate compatriots."

"The Poles extended a helping hand to the Nazis in identifying escapees from the ghettos. "{Polish} Police agents and police in uniforms have made great progress in spotting Jews"

@ felipetrece
You are trying to change the subject, but the article is about Jan Karski, who tried to get help to the Jews being exterminated by the Germans in occupied Poland, who acted on behalf of the Polish Government in exile and who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barak Obama. The unfortunate and unintentionally insulting slip of tongue by the president, who used the unjust and misleading phrase too often repeated in western media, should not detract from the gravity of the cause Jan Karski had undertaken. As quoted in the link above and below: In 1942, the Polish underground government issued a report called "The Mass Extermination of Jews in German Occupied Poland." It said: "The new methods of mass slaughter applied during the last few months confirm that the German authorities aim with systematic deliberation at the total extermination of the Jewish population.” I wish more had been done by all who had lived then and were in any way able to protest and stop the inhuman crimes committed against the Jews.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-storozynski/jan-karski-presidential-m...

i am not changing any subjects. this gaffe by obama is nothing to wriggle ur arms about. and from the 1000 plus comments i had skimmed through, i c a lot of handwriggling going on. relax, breathe deep. life goes on. what do u expect from a politician? and an american one, at that? most folks 'round here would not know the difference between russians, poles or germans. it is all greek to them. i personally think that jan karski wa a decent human being that had shed some light onto nazi (ok, german, if u so like) atrocities. what else can i say?

This is not complicated, but judging from the angry posts perhaps to some it is. There are only two arguments here:

A) That Obama carefully, deliberately, intentionally, premeditatedly, planned this, for him damaging, wording with the intention to insult or
B) He has referred to “Polish” only because of the camps location – a minor slip and nothing else.

The angry group obviously agree with the A and convey through TE nothing else but the inferiority complex.

This is a false dichotomy created by a perspective that is culturally insensitive. To the uninformed, it seems like option B is the rational choice, and it is tempting, however, to one who is emotionally and historically embedded in the atrocities survived by the Polish people during the second world war the very idea that this slip is 'minor' is insulting. I agree that there is a degree of Polish martyrdom, defensiveness and inferiority at work; none of this can justify the trivialization of a nation's suffering. Remember that Nazi Germany had not only created it's extermination machine for the 'jewish problem' but fully planned to exterminate the Polish people as a race, systematically destroying their population and culture, only to convert the survivors into a slave race.

So please, take a little time to understand the subtext of these issues before you make simplistic statements concerning other people's history and national identity.

Sorry - this is not a mistake - there is a fundamental difference between stating that the Nazi machine intended to destroy the Polish Race [along with other Slavs, point taken] and confusing the actions of Nazi Germany with those of the Polish people (even if it is later admitted to be a mistake). You are obfuscating the issue.

...and you are mudding the issue with trifling insistence that these camps were not in present Poland and also the fact that yours: “Nazi machine intended to destroy the Polish Race [along with other Slavs, point taken]” is a display of lack of knowledge as to who was Hitler’s prime target – think Barbarossa and 25 million lives.

I've heard about concentration camps in Africa in early 20th century (run, among others, by the daddy of the future commander of Auschwitz Rudolph Hess), I've also heard about Józef Piłsudski's "concentration camp" experiment in Bereza Kartuska, I've heard about Jedwabne and even about the Kraków pogrom of the Jews on August 11th 1945, but I have never heard of Jaworzno internment camp.

No point in discussing such issues with wszycho, he's a fan of Prof. Zygmunt Bauman, who at the time of the Jaworzno Camp was in the Internal Security Corps (KBW), killing not only Ukrainian insurgents but also members of the former Polish Home Army and other Polish anti-communist independence movements.
Stalinist rule in Poland was, well, as everyone should by then have known, Stalinist. Anyone who supported that regime was aiding and abetting a crime. Indeed such conduct should be condemned, but unlike Zygmunt Bauman, Polish patriots were not Stalinists.

In Jaworzno Soviet NKVD and their helpers killed and tortured Polish patriots. It was a German concentration camptransformed - after Soviet victory - into a Soviet concentration camp. The most infamous commenders of the camp was Salomon Morel who was famous for his cruelty.

One can learn from Jan T. Gross's "Neighbours" who those Polish patriots more often than not really were! (a very difficult read, especially if you're a Pole with any conscience, but it is a must, anyway).

Mr. Gross has made a really special job.
My family had many Jewish friends, or knowns, but I have never ever heard about such kinds of things that Mr. Gross is depicting.
It is not to say, that such things may have not happened, but it is to say that the Polish Underground has never collaborated with Germans, and the only sentence to "szmalcownik" was death. On the other hand, take Mr. Baumann who was a Soviet Prosecutor during early Stalinist regime in Poland. Would you like to explore this topic in more details ?

If you've read Jan T. Gross' "Neighbours", you should also read several books by Prof. Jerzy Robert Nowak or perhaps Norman Finkelstein. Such literature could only increase your knowledge of history. After all, you've never even heard of the Jaworzno camp.

If you really have "never heard of Jaworzno" (speaking frankly, I don't believe you) I would recommend that at the very least you get hold of a copy of a 1995 book by Mateusz Wyrwich 'Lagier Jaworzno: z dziejow czerwonego terroru', Waszawa. Fascinating reading ! As to Shlomo Morel, the commandant of the Swietochlowice and Jaworzno concentration camps, one source stated that he personally tortured and executed many Germans and Poles after the war, but later claimed that he did it because of the way he had been treated and because the Poles had killed his brother. After examination of evidence Wyrwich concluded that Morel's brother, after a military trial for robbery, was sentenced to death by the Armija Ludowa commander gen.G. Korczynski. I trust you have heard of him.
Now, according to another source familiar with Swietochlowice and Jaworzno camps commanded by Morel, over 6,000 German nationals were executed in 1945-46. For still different perspective try to get hold of a copy of Krystyna Kersten's article 'Jak bylo w latach 1944-48', "Polityka" July6, 1991

Read also John Sack's "An Eye for an Eye", 1993. He, inter allia, mentions that the police chief in Wroclaw was Shmuel Gross who also used the Polonised name Mieczyslaw Gross. Other police chiefs mentioned were Yechiel Grynspan (Grynszpan) and Ayzer Maka. Gross served as the police chief in Lublin, later tranferred to Breslau. According to Gross, 80% of the police officers in Lublin and 50% of policemen were Jews.
Was this a diabolical plan designed by Stalin, motivated by his suspicion of Poles ?

I had seen through prof. Jerzy Robert Nowak long time ago; he is very clever in gathering incomplete data and facts, selecting only what suits his political goals, drowns the whole theme he dealing with in nationalistic hatred and xenophobia, in short something is to be found there but when I really want to learn something I look for other, less slanted sources, like the Internet, for example. I saw prof. Nowak through and I don't find him reliable.

One should be extremely careful when using such absolute quantifiers as "always" and "never". From what I know a fellow named Paul Fuchs managed to carry out many a conversation with the leaders of the Polish Underground. Never say never. I'm afraid that the more I explored this murky topic the more sad facts about my famous very pariotic compatriots would I learn. That's why unless someone presses deliberately towards it (provoking) I think that we should have pity and remain silent about what was going on then.

This is a fun quiz. Listed below are 10 direct quotes. You have to guess which American politician said it. Your four choices are: Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin Former VP Dan Quayle President Barack Obama Former President George W. Bush Ready? Here we go!

2) "I've now been in 57 states, I think one left to go."
A. Barack Obama
B. Dan Quayle
C. Sarah Palin
D. George W. Bush

3) "On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes, and I see many of them in the audience here today."
A. Barack Obama
B. Dan Quayle
C. Sarah Palin
D. George W. Bush

4) "What they'll say is, "Well it costs too much money,' but you know what? It would cost, about. It it it would cost about the same as what we would spend. It. Over the course of 10 years it would cost what it would costs us. (nervous laugh) All right. Okay. We're going to. It. It would cost us about the same as it would cost for about hold on one second. I can't hear myself. But I'm glad you're fired up, though. I'm glad."
A. Barack Obama
B. Dan Quayle
C. Sarah Palin
D. George W. Bush

6) "I bowled a 129. It's like - it was like the Special Olympics, or something."
A. Barack Obama
B. Dan Quayle
C. Sarah Palin
D. George W. Bush

7) "Of the many responsibilities granted to a president by our Constitution, few are more serious or more consequential than selecting a Supreme Court justice. The members of our highest court are granted life tenure, often serving long after the presidents who appointed them. And they are charged with the vital task of applying principles put to paper more than 20 centuries ago to some of the most difficult questions of our time."
A. Barack Obama
B. Dan Quayle
C. Sarah Palin
D. George W. Bush

8) "Everybody knows that it makes no sense that you send a kid to the emergency room for a treatable illness like asthma. They end up taking up a hospital bed, it costs, when, if you, they just gave, you gave them treatment early and they got some treatment, and a, a breathalyzer, or inhalator, not a breathalyzer. I haven't had much sleep in the last 48 hours."
A. Barack Obama
B. Dan Quayle
C. Sarah Palin
D. George W. Bush

9) "It was interesting to see that political interaction in Europe is not that different from the United States Senate. There's a lot of I don't know what the term is in Austrian, wheeling and dealing."
A. Barack Obama
B. Dan Quayle
C. Sarah Palin
D. George W. Bush

10) "I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future."
A. Barack Obama
B. Dan Quayle
C. Sarah Palin
D. George W. Bush

Sorry. This was a trick quiz. All of the correct answers are the same person. Each of these quotes are directly from President Barack Obama. And now you know why he brings his teleprompter with him everywhere he goes...even when talking to a 6th grade class and some members of the media continue to insist he is "The smartest man ever elected to the Presidency".

Without ripping my head off for ignorance here, I wonder if the outrage of the reaction to things like this is do to the fact that Poland like many other central European countries at the time had a nasty streak of at least partially state sanctioned and widespread anti-semitism?

If by "nasty streak of at least partially state sanctioned" anti-Semitism or any other form of racism you mean things such as refusing to receive Jewish immigrants in the 1930s or believe reports of the mass murder of Jews in the first half of the 1940s, or conducting racial segregation well into the 1960s, the simple answer is no.

When it comes to PC problems in naming WWII death camps as well as other (quite contrary to so-called Western values) heinous crimes, sell-outs and betrayals of that period, Poles stopped feeling outraged half a century ago. Now we're just having a field day.

You speak up in public about "state sanctioned and widespread anti-semitism"
Any FACTS please ?

We've lived with Jews.
In my city there was a biggest Jewish population in Poland. Warsaw was not the one. We have two football teams, and one of them (I am keen of) is called "Jewis". We still remeber that. Before the war many jews were members of this club. This is nothing about nationality. This is about historical memory. There is a park in my town called "Herring Park". This is because poor jews were selling herrings there.

We all remember Jews which are part of our history. Go to New York and ask about sztetl Lodz. You'll amazed with answers

essentially covers: boycotts of jewish trades, exclusion of jews from government and violence towards jews, and it seems fairly even handed, admitting that there was a huge influx in jewish immigration and integration with poles was low which created tensions, but it seems pretty clear that anti-semitism was at it's peak when the Nazi's invaded, I know there are a great many stories of poles helping jews, and I know that Poles suffered heavily but if we are to learn from history we must also see the less savory side of human nature.

I have read some of the comments here.
We, Polish, are not obsessed with "russofobia" or "germanofobia" -or- "imperial schema". I just think that it is something very immoral to divert meanings. For those who want political correctness: have you ever been to German Death Camps in Poland ? Have you ever read what "Uncle Jo" did in Kolyma ?
Just go there and stand with your correctness, face up to all those names and faces of murdered Polish, Jews, Russians, Gypsies and others.
I would not dare to be correct. Would you ?